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"The ECB is completely independent. Neither the ECB, the national central banks in the Eurosystem, nor any member of their decision-making bodies can ask for or accept instructions from any other body. All EU institutions and governments must also respect this principle."

Now, if above is the law under Lisbon Treaty, hubris makes it a prerequisite that GCC and its counterparts (ALL) defer their arguments on OMT - i.e. if it's monetary or fiscal policy - to ECJ to decide.

And, if you've followed ECJ legal history, it seldom postulates or consents to national hubris of any member state, let alone GCC, in a case in which fundamental macro competence resides with ECB and its Executive Council.

The anti-europeans are those who break the agreed monetary rules nationally, who go for regulatory/tax forum shopping (Ireland), and promote monetary anarchy on the EU level. Eurobonds are possible but then the order policy conditions have to be laid first to prevent a hold up. The Schäuble litmus test proposal of an oversight competence for the Commission clearly revealed which nations do not intend to stick to agreed rules, so there is no point to trust those who want to compromise the European project by breaking rules, or even propose European rules without a governance framework. First comes governance, second comes the money. The other way just didn't work as nations lack discipline and undermined their trust, as the bond markets acknowledge. Markets seem to be smarter than some politicians.

I'd like to increase the altitude a little here because the article would have been confusing to me if I had not had the context I do. Germany is the most powerful economy in Europe and probably one of the few if any with good economic fundamentals. They have been bailing other countries out for some time now.

Under a "Union" of sorts this is the same kind of argument Connecticut might make against Maryland, for example, if we were some kind of Confederacy or worse, something akin to the European Union.

The "ex ante", for those that are wondering, means that Germany is saying we are not going to agree to blank checks because they feel they are being fleeced. They want limits on what the ECB can do beforehand.

Now, we see the obvious solution. Federalism. And I'd argue General Federalism (google it), but that might be a little too heterodox for Republicans and social conservatives in Europe. The problem with the EU in the last few years is rooted in its lack of a single monetary policy in which the currency has the full backing of Law and Equity. Basically, Europe needs a Federation, not this "treaty-based" confederacy wanna be.

"The problem is that almost all ECB policies would violate these principles" ... which is why the GCC ruling is absurd and cannot be confirmed by the ECJ, because it would make impossible for the ECB to comply with its primary mandate to mantain price stability, let alone to be indipendent and to preserve the euro.

You have to wonder .. how can you maintain that a central bank is 'independent' if lawyers and judges can make decisions that involve complex balancing of operational issues of the monetary system, while many possible solutions used by other central banks are forbidden by politicians. And this is a central bank of a system that is clearly more complicated than others, as it is the central bank of a monetary union. A union with many countries that each have their own independent bonds, with different interest rates, that in extreme situations completely lose their connection to the policy-rate that is set by the central bank. This central bank needs more handles to operate a system with more degrees of freedom. Not less.

I honestly don't see why ex ante bond buying is so different, you just put a gigantic limit on the purchases.

Regarding the speculation, it would be quite stupid for someone to speculate to lose money.

By the way,what would you speculate, that the ECB wouldn't buy debt,and short the sovereign, makes no sense... If you speculate that the ECB would buy debt, then you would be long, and actually would work in favor of ECB.

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